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Col. Robert T. Van Horn 



His Life and Public Service. 



AN ADDRESS 



Delivered Before the Greenwood Club of Kansas City, Mo. 
March 10th, 1905. 



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J. M.' Greenwood. 



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Col. Robert T. Van Horn. 



An address, delivered before the Greenwood Club of Kan- 
sas City, Mo., on the Life and Public Service of Colonel Robert 
Thompson Van Horn, March 10, 1905, by J. M. Greenwood. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

My apology for presenting a sketch of the life, the public 
service and the private virtues of Colonel Robert Thompson 
Van Horn, while he is still living among us, enjoying excellent 
health, and contemplating the weightiest problems that ever 
occupied the thoughts of man, is that we may the more fully 
appreciate a type of manhood that made it possible for the people 
of this country to enjoy in the fullest measure the richness of 
this life which is their inheritance. In the writer's opinion, it is 
poor consolation to bestow all the praisje on a benefactor of his 
race, after he has passed to that realm where praise and blame 
fall alike unheeded. It is, therefore, my pleasant duty this even- 
ing to sketch a picture of a life not yet ended, and to give tone 
and color to it. of one who. for more than forty years, stood 
as the embodiment of that kind of energy which has made the 
name of Kansas City a synonym for enterprise intelligently and 
honestly directed, in all sections of the United States. 

Already you ask. what of the man? How was he trained? 
What subtle influence of home life wrought a character that grew 
from childhood to manhood, from manhood to honored age. and 
now is revered by all who ever knew Iiim in public or private 
life. In what school did he study and equip himself for the man- 
ifold duties that devolved upon him. and marked him as the 
moving spirit among a coterie of men of remarkable practical 
sagacity, in knowing how to seize upon opportunities that would 
command and hold the avenues of commerce from the Lakes 
to Galveston, and to determine in advance what should be the 



gate\\a\ between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific? In 
brief, the idea of "about facing" the American people from the 
rising^ to the setting^ sun. Mere a^^ain. did the circumstances 
make the man. or did he mould and control the forces that lay 
dormant when he came upon the scene of action? To all of 
these inquiries, the sequel will show that one living here saw 
far in advance, how manifest destiny would move resistlessly 
westward. 

ANCESTRY .\ND EARLY LIFE. 

Robert Thompson Van Horn was born in East Mahoning, 
Indiana County, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1824. His ancestors 
were from Holland and came to this country more than two 
hundred and sixty years ago, and settled at New Amsterdam, 
in 1643. One of the descendants settled at Communipaw in 
New Jersey, in 1711. and from this branch of the family, the 
subject of this sketch is descended. His greatgrandfather, 
Henry \'an Horn, was a captain of a company of Pennsylvania 
troops in the Revolutionary Army, and died in the service, while 
his son. Isaiah, served in the same company to the end of the 
war. Isaiah had a son. Henry Van Horn, who was a soldier 
in the war of 1812, and his wife was Elizabeth Thompson, who, 
when a child, came with her parents from Ireland to America. 

Their son. Robert Thompson Van Horn, was reared on 
the paternal farm. His first work on the farm as a small boy, 
consisted in p.icking up stones in the meadow and putting them 
into piles, or heaping them in fence corners, cutting and piling 
brush, jjulling weeds in the garden, raking hay. feeding chick- 
ens, churning, turning a grindstone, and going to mill on horse- 
back. In the winter time, he went to the subscription school, 
studying spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, but not gram- 
mar, because it was not then taught in the schools of that section 
of Pennsylvania. 

-At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to learn the print- 
ing business in the office of the Indiana. Pennsylvania Register, 
where he worked for four years. From 1843 to 1855. he worked 
as a journeyman printer in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and 
Indiana — much of the time varying his occupation by boating 
for a time on the Erie Canal, teaching school occasionally during 
the winter months, sometimes publishing and editing a news- 
paper, and two seasons he was engaged in steamboating on the 
Ohio. Wabash and Mississippi, as he found employment. For 
a time he also acted as clerk on a river steamer, and when he 
come to Kansas City, he was called "Cai)tain." which title he 
bore till the Civil War. During this storm and stress period of 



his life, he studiefl law in the office of Hon. T. A. Plants, Meigs 
County, Ohio, with whom he was engaged in the practice of 
law for a short time. Twenty years later, they were both mem- 
bers of Congress together. 

During his residence in Meigs County, he married Miss 
Adela H. Cooley. fifty-s.*ven years ago, at Pomeroy, Ohio. At 
the time of their marriage, he was the editor and proprietor of 
a newspaper published there. 

To give a proper setting to all these varied experiences 
through which he passed, it is necessary to pause a moment, and 
to glance at the preparation he had received educationally to 
play the part in life in which he was destined to become a most 
conspicuous actor. A sentence or two will suffice. A friend vis- 
iting the Colonel and Mrs. Van Horn at their pleasant country 
home only a few years ago, complimented the Colonel on his 
wide and scholarly reading and the firm grasp he had on scien- 
tific and philosophic subjects, and his comprehensive knowledge 
of public men and national affairs. Without replying, he went 
to a library shelf and brought back three small books, — a United 
States Spelling Book, Introduction to the English Reader, and 
an Old Arithmetic, — "The Western Calculator," published in 
1819, written by J. Stockton : "These," said the Colonel, "were 
the sources of my information. I studied them in the winter 
when the weather was too bad to work out doors." His ethical 
training consisted chiefly in the Shorter Catechism of the Pres- 
byterian Church, of which his grandfather, father, and a brother 
were elders. A mother's influence had no little to do in shaping 
the active virtues of his life as one reads between the lines. 

LOOKING AT KANSAS CITY AND A SURPRISE. 

How well his contact with different types of men with whom 
he had mingled, had prepared him as a torch-bearer for the fore- 
front of this Western procession, is not now a question of spec- 
ulation, but one of deeds accomplished. By accident, in the 
summer of 1855, being temporarily in St. Louis, he met a gen- 
tleman from Kansas City w^ho was on the lookout for a printer 
to take charge of a small weekly paper, "The Enterprise," that 
had been launched in Kansas City a fev/ months before and was 
then on the point of suspension. "The Enterprise" was owned 
by an association of citizens who hired an editor and printers 
to publish it. So, taking a river steamer, he arrived in Kansas 
City July 31, 1855. The town was then a mere straggling vil- 
lage. He came to look over the situation. Being cordially 
greeted by the citizens, he was delighted with their hospitality. 
After talking the matter over, and listening to the glowing re- 



ports tlie citizens prave of the country and its possibilities, h< 
cauplit somewhat of their spirit and a^c^reed to purchase "The 
Enterprise" for $500. by payintj- S250 cash on the first of October, 
and giving them a note for $250, due twelve months later. He 
returned immediately to Ohio to get ready to move to Kansas 
City. Sure enough, on the first day of October, he was here 
with Mrs. Van Horn and their three little children. He came 
in compliance with the conditions of the verbal contract made 
in the summer, lie called at once at the business place of Jesse 
Riddlebarger. one of the gentlemen who had been authorized 
to sell the paper, and he informed ?\Ir. Riddlebarger that he 
was ready to take possession of the office. I quote Mr. Van 
Horn's own words concerning this meeting and the transfer 
of the paper: "He seemed surprised and frankly told me that 
he was very glad to see me. as he had not expected to do so, and 
was waiting till that day simply to keep his own word. To my 
inquiry why he was so surprised, he said that everybody had 
said that he was a fool for taking the word of an utter stranger 
and keeping others from buying. Rut as he had never said any- 
thing about it before, he was mighty glad I had come to take it. 
He gave me a receipt for the first payment, took my note for 
the other, and walking back with me a block from Delaware to 
Main Street on the Levee, put me in possession of the office and 
paper. Rut at the end of the year came my surprise. On my 
calling to pay the note when due, it was handed to me receipted 
— 'by valuable service' — and so it was that the actual price paid 
was $250." 

BEGINNING IN KANSAS CITY. 

Kansas City was then a village of 457 persons, and the next 
summer, according to an item in the Journal, the total population 
was 478. At this date there was very little of the town above 
the Levee. The business part was along the Levee, and the 
stores were brick and frame, none over two stories high. There 
was no formal society. Everybody kept open house and all were 
neighborly. There was not a carriage in town, and only one 
hack. Xo cards of invitation were issued then, but — "we want 
you and your family to come over this evening." was the usual 
form. There was not a graded street south of the river bluff — • 
just a country road from the steamboat landing to Westport. 

"The Enterprise," on its first anniversary, was changed to 
"The Kansas City Journal." It was a four-page, six-column 
weekly, and developed into a daily paper in June, 1858. The 
office was in the sccoikI floor of a building at the corner of Main 
Street and the Levee. Within the four walls of this one room, 



the editor and proprietor wrote the editorials, setting- up the type, 
secured and made contracts for advertising-, and worked the hand 
press in doing the job work and running off t!ie paper. Thus 
his experience of four years in a Pennsylvania printing office, 
was the best school possible for the work he was now engaged in. 
In 1855-56, Colonel and Mrs. Van Horn lived in the second 
story of a brick building at the corner of Walnut Street and 
the Levee, over John I'.auerlein's store. After this they moved 
into a log house on the hill at the corner of Third and Delaware. 
This new home had one room and a "lean to" for a kitchen. 
In 1857, a new addition to the town was laid out between Main 
Street and Grand Avenue, bounded on the north by Eleventh 
Street and on the south by Twelfth Street. On the east side 
of Walnut Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth, a lot fifty 
feet wide was bought, and a small brick house erected on it, and 
this remained their home for thirty years. In 1856, the year 
after Colonel \"an Horn came to Kansas City, an iassociation 
was organized under the name and title of the Kansas City As- 
sociation for Public Improvement, and of which he was an origi- 
nal member, and this organization later became the Chamber of 
Commerce. 

THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL AS A MINE OF INFORMATION. 

The writer spent three days in the Library room of the Kan- 
sas City Journal, in looking carefully through the old files of 
the early editions, in order to form an opinion of the editor's 
range of vision and his grasp on local and national issues prior 
to 1861. The early history of Kansas City and this w^estern 
country is there and from this mine of historical information, 
the full history of Kansas City will yet be written. An extract 
or two in this connection will give a better picture of the con- 
dition of affairs and the thoughts of the editor than any words 
of mine can express. 

EDITORIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ON TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1858, VOL. L 

NO. I. 

"Kansas City Western Journal of Commerce is before the 
public this morning, and we ask a comparison between it and 
any other daily journal in the west. Look at its clean, neat 
face, its ample columns filled with "live business," advertise- 
ments sparkling with news, local intelligence and general read- 
ing. We say it is the largest, neatest, best got up, and most 
readable daily journal that has seen the light in the valley of 
the Missouri. Look at its plan, the original matter, markets. 



port lists, etc.. and tluii inuii^nne how lone: it would take you 
to get up such a paper and see how you would like to do it for 
fiftCi'H ictits a week. It is said that printers live on air. and 
we think these fig^ures come jiretty nearly to that description of 
rations." 

"When solicited to start a daily, we told our citizens that 
it would require a heavy outlay, constant lahor and toil, to pub- 
lish a f,^ood one. and we had no idea of hazarding: our reputation 
as newspaper men by running out any other. We have redeemed 
our promise, now we call upon the solid men, the bone and the 
sinew of this young metropolis, to redeem theirs. Every morn- 
ing we will send you the news embracing 'The very age and 
body of the times.' that you may sip your Java over the night 
toilof the poor typo, while you are in the arms of Morpheus or 
of your wives, is straining his eyes and keeping midnight vigils 
for vour amusement and edification. Printers, like the dews 
of Heaven, are casting over the earth their beneficient influences 
when the world is asleep — and a cheerful morning salutation 
from every one is all they ask in between, and we know the gen- 
erositv of Kansas City will not deny it to them in this instance." 

Two days later a short editorial entitled. "Hoi'.' is This?" 
speaks for itself: 

"Since we commenced jjublishing a daily newspaper, and 
began to look around us w'ith more circumspection for locals, 
citv news. etc.. we find that a great reformation has taken place; 
nobody fighting, no nmaway horses, no circus, no theater, no 
dance on the boats. Officer Barnes arrests no one, no accidents, 
or fighting of any description. 

"We say, again, how is this? ]\Iust we let our own horses 
run away, or get into a row ourselves, in order to make a spicy 
local for those who find nothing interesting in the Journal?" 

Through the columns of the Journal, the mind of the editor 
is everywhere manifest in the editorials written and they are 
almost as ajjplicable today to the needs of Kansas City as they 
were then. Not only was the "(')verland Trade" with the South- 
wr^t and westward to the Pacific to be extended with the ulti- 
mate object of reaching China, Japan and India, but the trade 
of the Western coast of South America and Mexico must be 
secured to make a great city. Editorial after editorial urged 
the establishment of manufactories for making furniture, agri- 
cultural imi)!ements, wagons and carriages, and a paper mill, 
too, was greatlv needed. The hills nuist be cut down, the streets 
graded; committees should lie Mfganized to devise ways and 



means for establishing good roads throughout the country lead- 
ing out from Kansas City, so that the farmers could hring their 
products to market or for shipment ; churches and school houses 
must be built, fire engines secured and hook and ladder com- 
panies formed. A German newspaper should be established, and 
a "thousand other things," so the editorials ran. and the citizens 
as one man, were entreated to "put their shoulders to the wheel 
to help to build up the commercial center of mountain and prairie 
conuncrco." Every editorial was optimistic, encouraging and 
stimulating, and entirely free from sarcasm and bitterness. 



GATHERING NEWS. 



On August 17. 1858, the following message was flashed 
through the Ocean from Valencia, Ireland, to Trinity Bay. New 
Foundland: "Europe and America are united by telegraph. 
Glory be to God in the highest ; on earth peace and good will to- 
ward men." It took three days for this message to reach Kansas 
City and be published. In commemoration of this great event 
through the untiring energy of Mr. Cyrus W. Field, the Jour- 
nal of August 19. has the' following in very large headlines: 

Magnetic Tclcci:raph to Boonrillc and by Express to Kansas 
Citx. 

What is before us? We must meet it. Nezvs from London 
in three days. The Great Event Completed. 

One week later, the Journal announced the arrival of nine 
men, all miners, from the New Eldorado, with gold dust from 
Kansas Territory, found in the Pike's P.eak Mines. For deluding 
the people through the columns of the Journal in regard to the 
gold news, at Leavenworth and St. Joseph, there was strong 
talk of coming to Kansas City to lynch the editor on account 
of his brazen audacity. 

Kansas City now" had 375 real estate owners within her cor- 
porate limits, and one of the local needs was a bank and a new 
charter for the rapidly increasing expansion of the town. A 
bank was soon organized, and on December 30, 1858, the New 
Charter, which had been framed, was adopted by a vote of 85 
for and 58 against. 



RAILRO.\D AGITATION. 



To understand and to interpret public sentiment correctly in 
the United States since the close of the Revolution, one must bear 
in mind that two diflferent sets of ideas, facing in opposite di- 
rections, have been and still are in active operation, on account 
chiefly of inherited tendencies and geographical influences. One 



class of citizens inhabiting the Atlantic seaboard, have kept their 
eyes steadfastly tixed across the Atlantic as the real objective 
point and in connection therewith, they believed that this country 
would achieve its highest order of development commercially, 
politically, and socially by the closest possible relations with the 
leading nations of Western l-Airope. On the outer rim of this 
civilization, another set of ideas have colored the thoughts and 
feelings of a much larger class whose faces have been turned 
westward, and who depended almost wholly on their own indi- 
viduality to achieve renown by developing their country through 
to the Pacific, and then by cultivating commercial relations with 
the nations bordering on both sides of the Pacific. When the 
migration from the eastern portion of our country reached Mis- 
souri, it paused for a series of years, except as the more ad- 
venturous hunters, trappers and explorers pushed far beyond the 
most distant outskirts of civilization. But at this period the man 
of all others who did more from 1833 to 1843 to bring promi- 
nently before the American people, the possibilities of the Great 
West, was Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri. In reply to Sen- 
ator Duffie of South Carolina on the Oregon Bill, he used the 
following language: "Sir, I confess that this wealth of the sur- 
face, and the still vaster treasures that lie beneath, unmined. but 
not unknown, have awakened in men, arid to me seem to justify, 
the expectations of which the Senator considered so visionary. 
Over such a region, the passage from the richest valley in the 
world — that of the Mississippi — to a new and wide commercial 
empire, that must presently start up on the Pacific, I can not 
think that railroads and canals are mere day dreams." 

What was anticipated by Senator Linn just before his death 
was more than six years later taken u]) and advocated by Sen- 
ator Benton. In the Senate of the United States, February 7. 
1849, he spoke as follows: 

"Mr. President, the bill which I i)ropose to introduce pro- 
vides for the location and construction of a national central 
highway from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean. The 
idea of a communication across our part of North America is 
no new idea. It has belonged to every power that has ever 
been dominant over this part of the continent. In the year 1680, 
La Salle took leave of his friends at Montreal to go upon his 
discoveries west, the last word he uttered in parting from them 
was China — La Chine — and the spot has retained the name ever 
since. 

"When the .Spaniards were afterwards masters of Louisiana, 
the Baron de Carondelet. r,overnor (leneral of that province. 



with the approbation and sanction of Charles I\'., undertook this 
great project — the discovery of a practical route across the con- 
tinent by the way of the Missouri river. He employed an enter- 
prising man (Don Jacques Clamorgan), to undertak'e the dis- 
covery — a great reward in land being otYered to Glamorgan, and 
a gratuity of three thousand dollars was promised to the first 
man who should see the Pacific Ocean. It miscarried, although 
a hundred men set out upon the expedition. 

The British, owning large possessions in North America, 
having in vain endeavored to find a northwest passage to Asia, 
turned their eyes inland in the hope of finding some route across 
the continent, and Mr. Alexander McKenzie, who was after- 
wards knighted for the energy and faithfulness with which he 
conducted an enterprise for that purpose, was the successful 
undertaker. He traversed the continent over that portion of it 
belonging to Great Britain lying in high latitudes, reached the 
sea. but pointed to the Golumbia river as the only desirable route 
on the other side of the mountains ; and that was the cause 
of all the long eflforts made by the British Government, first to 
make the Columbia a boundary betw^een us open to the navi- 
gation of each, and afterwards to obtain its free navigation. An 
inland commercial route across the continent was what she 
wanted. 

"When we ac(|uired Louisiana. ]\Ir. Jefiferson revived this 
idea of establishing an inland communication between the two 
sides of the continent, and for that purpose the w^ell- 
known expedition of Lewis, and Clark w-as sent out 
by him. Practical utility in the business of life, as w^ell 
as science, was his object. To find a route to answer the pur- 
poses of a commercial communication, as well as enlarging the 
boundaries of geographical science, was the object; and so the 
instructions declared. That expedition was successful in finding 
a communication ; Mr. Jefiferson did not remain in power to 
carry out the practical design : and no President since his day 
has taken it up. 

"About thirty years ago. I turned my attention to this sub- 
ject, and conceived a plan for the establishment of a route extend- 
ing up the Missouri river, and down the Columbia. I followed 
the idea of Mr. Jefferson. La Salle, and others, and I have en- 
deavored to revive attention to their plans. The steam car was 
then unknown, and California was not ours: but I believed that 
Asiatic commerce might be brought into the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi on that line, and wrote essays to support that idea. The 
scope of these essays was to show that Asiatic commerce had been 
the pursuit of all western nations, from the time of the Phoeni- 



cians down to the present day — a space of three thousand years ; 
that during all this time this commerce had been shifting its chan- 
nel, and that wealth and power had followed it. and disappeared 
upon its loss : that one more channel was to be found — a last one, 
and our America has its seat : and I then expressed the confident 
belief that this route would certainly be established — immediately, 
with the aid of the American provernment, and eventually, even 
without that aid. by the progress of events and the force of cir- 
cumstances. Occupied with that idea. I sought to impress it upon 
others. Looking to a practical issue, I sought information of the 
countrv and the mountains, from all that could give in — from the 
adventurous hunters and traders of the great west. Knowledge 
was the first object. The nature of the country — whether in- 
habitable or not — between the Mississippi and the Pacific — the 
passes in the mountains — were the great points of inquiry, and 
the results were most satisfactory. Inhabitable country and prac- 
tical passes were vouched for ; but it was not till the year 1842 
that the information took the definite form which would become 
the basis of legislation. In the year 1842 Mr. Fremont solicited 
and obtained leave to extend his explorations to the South Pass 
of the Rocky Mountains, not for the purpose of discovering that 
pass, for it was done almost precisely forty years ago by the hunt- 
ers, but for the purpose of fixing its locality and character. At that 
time it was not known whether that pass was within our territory 
or in Mexican Territory. Mr. Fremont, therefore, wished to 
extend his explorations to that pass for the purpose of ascertaining 
its locality and character with a view to a road to Oregon, and the 
increase of geographical knowledge. He was then employed on 
topographical duty, having just returned from two years of great 
labor on the upper [Mississippi, assistant to the distinguished 
astronomer, Mr. Nicollet, who. by his great exertions during the 
five vears that he was engaged there, brought on a prostration 
which ended in his death. ^Ir. Fremont solicited and obtained 
from Colonel Abert the privilege of going to the South Pass, and 
he made his examinations there in a way to satisfy every inquiry. 
His description of it was satisfactory to all minds ; and the reading 
of that description now will show the ease with which the moun- 
tain can be passed at that place. 

"August 7. 1842. we left our encampment with the rising- 
sun. As we rose from the bed of the creek, the snow line of the 
mountain stretched grandly before us, the white i)caks glittering 
in the sun. They had been hidden in the dark weather of the 
last few days, and it had been snowing on them while it had been 
raining on us. We crossed a ridge, and again struck the Sweet 
Water — here a beautiful swift stream, with a more open valley, 

10 



timbered with beech and ccHtonwood. It now bej^an to lose itself 
in the many small forks which makes its head ; and we continued 
up the main stream until neaj" noon, when we left it a few miles, 
to make our noon halt on a small creek among the hills, from 
which the stream issues by a small opening. Within it was a 
beautiful grassy spot, covered with an open grove of large beech 
trees, among which I found several plants that I had not pre- 
viously seen. The afternoon was cloudy, with squalls of rain ; 
but the weather became fine at sunset, when we again camped 
on the Sweet Water, within a few miles of the South Pass. The 
country over which we have passed today consists principally of 
the compact mica slate, which crops out on all the ridges, making 
the uplands very rocky and slaty. In the escarpments which bor- 
der the creeks, it is seen alternating with a light colored granite, 
at an inclination of 45 degrees. About six miles from the encamp- 
ment brought us to the summit. The ascent had been so gradual, 
that with the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, who had 
made this country his home for seventeen years, we were obliged 
to watch very closely to find the place at which we had reached 
the culminating point. From the impressions on my mind at the 
time (and subsequently on our return), I should compare the 
elevation which we surmounted at the Pass to the ascent from 
the avenue to the Capitol hill at Washington. The width of the 
Pass, or rather the width of the depression in the mountain which 
makes this gap in its chain, is about twenty miles, and in that 
width are many crossing places. Latitude (where crossed), 42 
degrees, 24 minutes, 32 seconds ; longitude, 109 degrees 26 min- 
utes. Elevation above the sea, 7,490 feet. Distance from the 
mouth of the Kansas, by the common traveling route, 962 miles ; 
distance from the mouth of the Great Platte, 882 miles." 

AN ACTIVE FACTOR IN RAILROAD LEGISLATION. 

When Colonel Van Horn came to Kansas City he was not 
unfamiliar with the ideas and aspirations that dominated the 
thoughts and feelings of the people of the West. A close student 
from the habitual bent of his mind and a critical and just observer 
of men and their motives, he adjusted himself to the new condi- 
tions as readily and easily as if he had been born and reared in 
this atmosphere. Besides as a newspaper man and a law student, 
he had not been unconscious of what the people in all parts of the 
United States had done and were doing, so that when he came to 
Western Missouri, he did not have to begin at the beginning to 
understand and to interpret the situation. 

In the fall of 1858 a great railroad meeting had been called 
at Kansas City for November 22. Invitations had been sent into 

II 



Kansas Territory and into many of the counties of Western Mis- 
souri. The convention was held at the old Court House, and on 
the following day Mr. William Gilpin addressed this convention 
on the importance of building railroads and in helping to develop 
the resources of the mighty region lying between the British pos- 
sessions on the North and the (iulf of Mexico on the South, and 
from the Mississippi to the I'acific on the West. No doubt Mr. 
( .:• in at this time was the best informed man on the topography 
of this entire region with the exception of Colonel Fremont of the 
regular army and of Kit Carson and Jim Uridger, the two great 
scouts. 

Colonel \'an Horn was a member of the committee on reso- 
lutions, and he drew the resolutions which were unanimously 
adopted by the convention. These resolutions urged the Congress 
of the I'nited States to construct a Great Continental Railway 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The committee on reso- 
lutions based its action on topographical, geographical, commer- 
cial and military reasons for the undertaking of such a gigantic 
enteri)rise. They held that the Kansas River is situated on the 
geographical central line of the United States to the Pacific Ocean, 
that along its valley the grade is smaller than elsewhere across 
the country, that it is the most natural route along which com- 
merce and the movement of soldiers and military supplies could 
be transi)orted, and that a great continental railroad was a neces- 
sitv to bind the people on the Pacific Coast to the Union, and to 
defend tht-m in case of war with a foreign nation. For like rea- 
sons the doctrine was set forth that a great railroad line should 
be constructed from the region of the Lake of the Woods to Gal- 
veston, thus giving direct connection through Kansas City w'ith 
the north and the south, and the members of this convention be- 
lieved, and their speakers and resolutions indicate, that great 
transcontinental lines of travel and traffic would bind all sections 
of the .Xmerican Union more firmly together. Of the ten rcso- 
lutif)ns embodied in the Committee's rei:)ort one was that work 
should be immediately undertaken to connect Kansas City with 
the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad at Cameron. This was 
regarded as especially desirable by the meml>ers of the convention. 
As this time the railroads in Missouri were the Hannibal and St. 
Joseph, and .St. Joseph was the "big town" on the Missouri river; 
the Wabash from .St. Louis to Macon City, called then the North 
Missouri Railroad : the Missouri Pacific, the first road in the state, 
was being pushc<l westward to Sedalia, which it reached a short 
time before the Civil War, and the Iron Mountain that ran out 
from .St. Louis to Inm Mountain. The pcoplr along the lines of 
these roads and tluir projections were- di\id(cl intu two classes, 

12 



those who wanted railroads and those who opposed railroads, 
chiefly on account of their destrovinf,'- teaininjj:. In those days 
merchandise of all kinds was hauled in farm wap^ons from the 
river towns or railroad stations hack into the interior, and farm 
products, unless consumed hy the local needs of the community, 
were hauled to the towns or stations for sale or shipment. These 
early makers of Kansas City were, no doubt, the most far-seeing 
body of men in the Mississippi X'allcy. They were looking far, 
high and wide. .Meetings had been held petitioning those in au- 
thority to hurry the Missouri Pacific into Kansas City. A rail- 
road line had been suVveyed from Independence to Kansas City, 
and the City Council had granted the right of way. 

While in the field with his regiment in 1862. Colonel Van 
Horn was elected to the Missouri Senate, and during the session 
of the Legislature in the winter of 1864-5. he had charge of the 
bill for completing the Missouri Pacific Railway from Sedalia 
to Kansas City. He carried the measure through the Senate and 
with the aid of M. J. Payne and K. M. McClee. it passed the 
House. This was a very critical period in the history of Kansas 
City, and considering the circumstances under which the people 
of this state were then living, this was one of the most important 
achievements conmiercially and financially connected with our 
state history. Business was paralyzed ! The people were di- 
vided — bitter, distrustful, and more than half the state had been 
devastated by hostile armies. 

While a member of Congress, he secured the Charter for 
the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad bridge, across the Missouri 
river at this ijoint, and the first constructed across the Missouri 
river. Kansas had already become a state, and in the estimation 
of a majority of Senators and Congressmen, its interests would 
be very much more regarded than would those of Missouri ; but 
Colonel Van Horn had always been even in territorial troubles, 
just in his views of the dissensions between Kansas and Missouri, 
yet he felt that at this juncture, the real contest for supremacy 
lay between Kansas City and Leavenworth. Cp to this time 
Leavenworth was always spoken of as the coming Western Me- 
tropolis. Congressional Legislation was decisive, and it assured 
the supremacy of Kansas City just at this critical moment when 
the issue was hanging in the balance. He aided also very ma- 
terially in securing legislation that provided for the building of 
the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, and especially 
in enabling the company to secure the neutral lands, now com- 
posing the counties of Crawford and Cherokee in Kansas, to- 
aid in the construction of the road. In 1869. he introduced into- 
Congress a bill providing for the consolidation of the Indian. 

13 



tribes, ami the organization of a government in that portion of 
the Iiulian Territory which formed Oklahoma. Prior to this 
date four years, he was a member of a delegation from Kansas 
City to an Indian Council at Fort Smith, Arkansas, when by 
treaty the right of way to build a railroad through their lands 
was secured. He was instrumental in carrying the measure 
through Congress to build the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul 
railway bridge across the Missouri river at this point. By public 
addresses, attending conventions and legislative bodies, and es- 
pecially in the columns of the Journal, most intelligently and 
earnestly he furthered every material, commercial, intellectual 
and moral interest in which the people of Kansas City and the 
entire western country would be benefited. 

IX PUBLIC OFFICE. 

By nature. Colonel Van Horn preferred private life to offi- 
cial position. In no sense was he ever an office-seeker ; yet, ow- 
ing to his deep and intelligent interest in all public questions 
and original and practical ideas as to the means of furthering and 
forwarding needed legislation in order to secure definite and 
desirable results, he yielded to the wishes of his neighbors and 
friends, and was honored by them divers times. In less than 
two years after his removal to Kansas City, he was elected Al- 
derman, and in 1861, he was elected Mayor, and re-elected in 
1864. He served as Postmaster from 1857 to 1861, and resigned 
when he became Mayor. At the Presidential election in 1864, 
he was first elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1866, 
1868. 1880, and in 1892. In Congress he was known as one of 
the best working members of that body where the real work 
is done in conmiittees. General Grant appointed him in 1875, 
Collector of Internal Revenue of the Sixth District of Missouri, 
and he held that position till June, 1881. He was a delegate 
to every National Republican Convention from 1864 to 1884, 
and was twice a member of the National Republican Committee, 
and chairman of the Republican State Committee. 

Ills WAR RECORD. 

Running through the files of the Journal till the explosion 
came in 1861, Colonel Van Horn's editorials reflect the senti- 
ments of at least four-fifths of the people living in Missouri, 
namely, that after the election of Mr. I.incoln as President, some 
plan would be devised by which the Union would be preserved 
withf)Ut resorting to the arbitrament of the sword. He had 
been a Democrat, and the Journal, during the political cam- 
paign of 1860 and prior thcnto. had been a conservative Dem- 

14 



ocratic paper, opposed to the extreme sectional views of both 
the North and the South. In the niemoralile campaign f)f ISC/), 
as did most of the Democratic papers of this state, the Journal 
supi)orted Mr. Douj^^las for I'resident. As Mayor of Kansas 
City in 1861, he issued a proclamation advising the citizens to 
go about their business and to refrain from discussing political 
issues which tended to stir up strife. As a Douglas Democrat, 
when Fort Sumpter was fired upon, he enthusiastically espoused 
the cause of the Union. Naturally he was looked to as the leader 
and consolidator of the Union Sentiment of this part of the state. 
One of the curious features of the development of public senti- 
ment and the arranging of men into two hostile parties was, 
that in the cities and towns, the Southern sentiment was very 
much more pronounced, wdiile in the country, the Union senti- 
ment in most counties, was overwhelming. The strong Union 
party in Missouri was composed almost solidly of the 17,000 men 
who had voted for Mr. Lincoln, of a very large per cent, of the 
Democrats who had voted for Mr. Douglas, and almost of an 
equal number that had voted for Bell and Everett. Those who 
voted for }klr. r.rockenridge for President were divided when 
the war came. Events moved rapidly. Men were drilling with 
and without arms. There were few men in the State that knew 
anything of the manual of arms, but nearly all the younger men 
and older boys were enrolled and would meet on Saturday after- 
noons to drill ; those in the towns w'ould meet of evenings and drill. 
When the President called for volunteers to suppress the insur- 
rection, the Ciovernor of Missouri defied the President's author- 
ity, although soldiers were volunteering and being mustered into 
service. The capture of Camp Jackson on the 10th of May. 
1861, precipitated matters and brought the crisis to a head. The 
Governor soon thereafter called for 50,000 volunteers to defend 
Missouri. The ball was fairly opened and at it and into it, Mis- 
souri plunged. Colonel \'an Horn raised a battalion of men that 
he commanded in 1861 ; it soon became a regiment. As a soldier 
and an ofiFicer, whether in Mis.souri or at the front with the 
Armv of the Tennessee, in action or in camp, with his regiment, 
his conduct was that becoming a brave man and a true gentle- 
man. He served three years in active and meritorious service 
in the field; but when in 1863, the famous order "No. 11" was 
issued bv General Thomas Kwing, commanding the district of 
the border, with headquarters at Kansas City, the execution of 
this famous order created great distress and much needless suf- 
fering of many women and children, and so intense was the suf- 
fering, that niany citizens implored General John M. Schofield 
to ai)point Colonel \'an Horn to conduct the deportation. . 

15 



Durinj^^ the entire war no other officer or citizen had such 
a (UtHciih antl delicate duty to perform. It was a duty of the 
very t;reatest responsibility. He knew personally many of these 
refuj^ees. and iheir i)itiable condition and misfortune sank deep 
into his heart. Xotwithstanding the service in which he had 
been engaged in this state, antl in the South, and the further 
fact that in the battle of Lexington he had been severely wounded 
and at the battle of Corinth, while leading his regiment, his 
horse had been shot under him. yet in this new and trying posi- 
tion, as a true soldier, executed his orders with loyal submission 
to his superiors in command, but every act was tempered with 
forbearance, kindness and sympathy, and as he thought of his 
wife and little ones at home, he aided in every way possible to 
help those who had left their smoking homes behind them. 

These acts of kindness were not forgotten. Some of his 
most pleasing recollections in the retirement of private life, are 
the expressions of gratitude that have come from those dis- 
tressed at that time, or from their descendants and friends. Amid 
the din of arms such actions of tender and sympathetic regard 
could only come from a great and magnanimous soul. No won- 
der, then, that whenever Colonel \''an Horn was a candidate for 
Congressional honors, that many Southern soldiers would vote 
for him because of liis generosity to their wives and little ones 
when they were away in the field. 

AS JOURNALIST AND THINKER. 

There have been four great newspaper men in the United 
States as I now use the term, who formulated thought and 
luoulded public opinion : George D. Prentice, whose brilliancy 
at this time is recognized by all who knew him personally, or in 
any manner since his death, have become familiar with his writ- 
ings. He was a gifted genius. As a contemporary of his, but 
one who was his antipode, was Horace Greeley, who for years 
wrote those great, practical, common-sense editorials which 
made the New "^'ork Tribune, the greatest political force in the 
nation. He i)Ut in a direct, straightforward manner, the con- 
victions of his own conscience, and no other newsjiaper in this 
country has ever carried the masses with it as did the Tribune 
prior to and during the Civil War. Horace (ireeley tried to 
tell the truth, and in this fact lay the power the Tribune held 
over the minds and hearts of a large number of the American 
f)eoplc. The third is Samuel Bowles, whose editorials in the 
Weekly Springfield Republican caused the American nation to 
pause and reflect. He grasped great f|uestions. and be handled 
them as a giant wimld take up ])uny things and toss tlieiu aboutv 

16 



viewing them on every side as they were hurled throup^h the air. 
Colonel \'an Horn is the fourth in this line. His editorials 
were put in stronj^", vij^orous luiglish, exjjressed in simple lan- 
guage. The thought was always higger than the words that 
carried the thought, and better than Prentice, (ireeley or I'.owles, 
his illustrations were always drawn from simple and familiar 
objects better adapted to the capacity of the mass of readers than 
the others employed, although Horace Greeley approached him 
the nearest in the use of language as an instrument to convey 
thought. This represents only one side of Colonel Van Horn's 
manv-sided character. There has never been a man in the State 
of Missouri, or perhaps in the United States, certainly no one 
that I have ever read after or knew personally, that knew our 
public political men better than he knew them. I'lessed with a 
retentive memory, a keen and discriminating analysis of human 
nature and the motives that play upon it. he is one of the best 
informed men in this particular line that our country has ever 
produced. At no time have I ever asked him about any one of our 
public men either of the present or of its past political history, 
that he has ever hesitated for a moment in giving a correct esti- 
mate of his ability and character. His mind is simply encyclo- 
paedic. His newspaper experience and public life fitted him com- 
pletely for accumulating and massing information which he has 
arranged, digested and classified with wonderful skill. Three 
references onlv in this connection will be sufficient. In De- 
cember he called at my office and we were conversing on general 
topics in no prearranged manner, and I said: "Colonel, who 
is the greatest man now in the United States Senate?" With- 
out a 'moment's hesitation, he replied: "Morgan of Alabama. 
When he first went to the Senate, some of the old members 
thought he talked too much ; but he is one of those fellows who 
always studies, and he knows what is going to be done and 
what has been done, and his mind moves in the biggest orbit 
there is in the Senate. He is never idle." 

Several vears ago. during a conversation. Carl Schurz's 
name was mentioned and I remarked: "Colonel, how do you 
account for Carl Schurz boxing the political compass so often?" 
"Carl Schurz." said he. "was 3. born revolutionist. As soon as 
he was old enough, he plunged into a revolution, and he has 
kept at that business ever since. He is built that way." 

A HISTORIC CHARACTER PROPHFXV. 

Colonel Van Horn, writing an "editorial correspondence" 
from Tefiferson City, gives the following estimate of Hon. Charles 
D. Drake, who, six years later was known as the author of the 

17 



^'Drake Constitution" of Missouri: "December 20. 1859, was 
as predicted, consumed by Mr. Drake with his Sunday Bill, and 
for want of a subject, I may as well notice this gentleman. He 
came here with a rej)utation preceding him. that better legisla- 
tors have employed years to obtain. But it has not been sus- 
tained. He is a man of talent, as well as a man of fine acquire- 
ments — an excellent speaker, and a fine debator, but he is en- 
tirely a book man, an office legislator, and totally devoid of pop- 
ular sympathy, or popular education. He seems to be insensible 
to the reflection that there can be any diversity of opinion, except 
upon the supposition that all save his own is unsound and false. 
He has but two words in his vocabulary — orthodoxy and heresy. 
It is this tone of mind that has been the source of the Sunday 
Bill. I believe fully that the man is sincere and conscientious 
in his advocacy of it, but his sincerity arises from the fact, that 
his natural intellectual proclivities are Puritanical. I believe that 
he is competent- to stand and see passing before his eyes, day 
after day, a practical refutation of his dogma, without being 
aware of the fact that he might be mistaken. He is the worst 
possible man to whom any bill aflfecting morality or practices, 
aflfecting in any manner questions of conscience, could be en- 
trusted. He is already looked upon as constituting a complete 
state, a complete church, and a complete system of social econ- 
omy, within himself. He always speaks of the country as the 
rural districts, and seems to think that city sense is of a more 
sublimated and ethereal character than that which comes from 
the corn-fields of the state. Perhaps it is so, but it is not cal- 
culated to advance the influence of Mr. Drake in the House, to 
let it be known that he feels so. Unfortunately, a large majority 
of the Legislators are from the rural districts." 

I'rior to his being elected to the Legislature. Hon. Charles 
I). Drake, was favorablv known to the legal profession by his 
work on "Attachments." which was for years the standard au- 
thority. But the analysis of his character more than six years 
before he came into prominence in the state, shows how well 
Colonel \'an ?Iorn then measured men. This is a better descrip- 
tion of Senator's Drake's mental peculiarities than I have ever 
seen elsewhere in print. 

A SKNSE OF IIUNfOR. 

There is a very strong sense of humor in Colonel \''an Horn's 
nature. .An incident or two will illustrate. 

VOICE OF Tin-: people. 

The foll(.wing extracts and comments appeared in the Jour- 
nal January 2<S, 1860: "We trust our readers will pardon us for 

16 



the amiable vanity that compels us to clip the following: from our 
exchanges : 

"R. T. Van Horn is a true Democrat, a man who is identi- 
fied with the interests of Missouri and Jackson County, and who 
has done hard work and noble services in defense of that party. 
As we said last week, we said we were for Van against the world, 
provided he receives the nomination. — Independence Gazette." 

"R. T. Van Horn, Editor of the Journal, is announced as 
a candidate for the Legislature." Go it, Van, "we'll hold your 
hat." — Kansas City Metropolitan. 

COMMENTS. 

"Such is fame, glory, renown, and what the poets call living 
in history. That phantom makes patriots, conspirators, heroes 
and martyrs. It is tlie first toot of the horn of the coy goddess 
that unstrings the nerves, and sends the hot blood surging 
through the veins. A great thing is this vox populi." 

PERSONAL .ACOUAINT.\NCE OF COLONEL VAN HORN. 

Before I came to Kansas City in August, 1874, I had read 
considerably of Col. Van Horn in an official capacity. From 
what information I possessed, no hint had been given me touch- 
ing his mental characteristics or his personal appearance. The 
newspapers had been strangely silent. Soon after my arrival 
here, Hon. J. V. C. Karnes said to me. — "I want you to meet 
Colonel Van Horn of the Journal of Commerce." The Journal 
office was on Fifth Street, between Main and Delaware. We 
went into a back room, called the editorial room, and there sat 
Colonel Van Horn in his shirt sleeves. We talked probably fif- 
teen minutes, and when I started to go, he said: "Greenwood, 
I like you. The columns of the Journal are open to you. Write 
on any subject vou please, except Democracy. It would not 
look well in a Republican paper, you know." We both laughed, 
and I thanked him. Here was a stout built man. rather ruddy 
complexion, about five feet ten inches in height, weight perhaps 
two hundred pounds, eyes between a light blue and a steel gray, 
hair and beard which were short, nearly reddish brown, slightly 
tinged with gray, a high, broad, square forehead, a Grecian 
nose, a wide mouth, firmlv set jaws, a chin that set ofT well the 
forehead, eves, nose, mouth. The whole cast of countenance 
bespoke kindliness, persistence, and determination most hap- 
pilv blended. One's life is reflected in the sphere of little things 
perhaps more than in great events ; the one springing up. invol- 
untarily without much it any forethought, and tlu- ••thcr as 

19 



the resultant uf prolong^ed investigation and deliberation. The 
one has its orii^in in the heart, is the natural impulse of the feel- 
ings intuitively expressed, — and the other the cold calculation 
of the intellect with the emotions eliminated. It is from both 
these view points I shall consider the essential features of Colo- 
nel \'an Horn's character. 

At this time he was interested in the writings of Darwin, 
Huxley, Spencer. Wallace. Cope, Hackel, and others who were 
thinking: along: these lines, but his mind was equally active in 
a dozen or more different directions. Whenever I would go 
into the Journal office, or meet him on the street, we discussed 
the writings of the men who were the advanced thinkers of the 
age. and we talked of the best books either had recently read. 
Another theme that formed many conversations was the N'ortex 
theory of the formation of the Universe, as outlined by Des- 
cartes, which he employed to explain the motions of the planets. 
It was indeed a matter of great pleasure to spend an hour or 
two each week in the company of one whose conversations were 
always along such broad lines, entirely divorced from personal 
gossi)) and commonplace platitudes. The highest and the best 
thinking then, so far as I knew, in Kansas City, was done by 
Colonel Van Horn and Dr. J. G. Roberts, pastor of the First 
Congregational Church. Another subject that received consid- 
erable attention was the "Race of Mound Builders." and wdio 
thev were, and did they respresent a phase of semi-civilization 
that had been swept away by the Xorth American Indians. 
Every Sunday, and for years afterwards, the Sunday Journal 
would contain a leading editorial on some great subject of 
scientific, sociological. meta])hysical. religious, or literary in- 
terest, setting forth some new doctrine or opinion. There was 
not a newspaper in New York. Boston. Chicago, or St. Louis 
that had the reputation that the Journal then sustained on Sun- 
dav editorials, and these editorials were copied far and wide 
in niany of the leading newspapers of the country. Those who 
did not know the Colonel personally, would write letters com- 
l)limcnting the "Religious Editor of the Journal" for his great 
and thoughtful contributions. These letters came from all 
parts of the country and many of them I read. 

Occasionally the Colonel would sjieak of the jiolicy he had 
marked out for the Journal, and to which he .severely adhered. 
One day I hai)i)cned in, someone was relating an incident that 
bordered on the coarse. Colonel \'an Horn said: "We some- 
times hear such things here in the office, but they never get into 
the columns of the Journal. I i)ul)lish a i)a]ier for the fireside, 
where the whojf family can read it and not bring a blnsli to the 

20 



cheek of an\ woman or girl." This ])olicy explains why it was 
that Democratic families as well as all the Republican families 
in Kansas City read the Journal. It was a clean family paper, 
thoui^h a strong political ])a])er. 

When General John S. Phelps was the Democratic candi- 
date for Governor of the State, a story was ])ut into circula- 
tion in one of the St. Louis papers reflecting on his private char- 
acter, and many of the country papers reprinted it with com- 
ments; but the Kansas City Journal kept silent. ( )ne day in 
conversation with the Colonel, I said: "Colonel, the Journal 
has not printed anything about General Pheliis." This was 
his characteristic rei)ly : "I know General Phelps intimately. 
We are warm personal friends, and we have known each other 
for many years. That stor\- is a lie, and not one word of it 
shall be printed in the Journal." At the election. General Phel])s 
was elected by a large majority, and on Saturday, just before 
the Governor was to be inaugurated. I went into the editorial 
room of the Journal, and the Colonel said. "Sit down and let 
lis swap a few lies." A familiar way he had of asking a person 
to talk with him a while. While we were swapping, an ex- 
confederate soldier came in. and he wished to speak with the 
Colonel privately. The Colonel shook his hand very cordiall\', 
but at the same time he asked me to remain. This ex-confed- 
erate was a Democrat, and he wanted a letter from Colonel 
Van Horn to Governor Phelps, recommending him for a posi- 
tion. The credential w^as given, and after the man went out, 
the Colonel said : "It may seem strange to you that this man 
would come to me for a letter to the Governor, but I told him 
he had better not let the other Democratic candidates kni^w that 
he had it. but he could show it to the Governor." During this 
conversation he told me that he had never betrayed a political 
confidence in his life, and that was the rule he had adopted 
early in life. Information given in secrecy was inviolate. 

It mav be interesting to mention how the Colonel wrote 
editorials for the Joiinial. Tie wrote usuall}- in the forenoon 
at his desk, using a very fine pointed lead pencil. 1 noticed in 
the waste basket many times a very delicate hand writing on 
soft paper, and I was puzzled for a while to understand what 
woman about the Journal office wrote such a small hand, the 
words crowded closely together. One day as I was sitting 
there, I noticed an editorial which had not been sent to the 
compositor, and it explained the mystery. When writing with 
pen and ink, he wrote a large bold hand, but when for the press 
or an address, he wrote a fine delicate hand, and he said that 
he could not think well unless he so wrote. 

21 



1 have iicvor kiuiwn a man simpler in liis habits. After 
writing;' liis ccHtorials and while waiting to read the proof, he 
would eat his diinier, which in the earlier days wlicn I first knew 
him, consisted of light bread or crackers, and '"dried buffalo 
beef." Many a time have I seen him dining on this plain, but 
substantial mid-day meal. After reading his proof he would 
go home, frequently buying something for the family as he 
passed a grocery store and carry it home. Once I overtook 
him on Main Street, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, carrying 
two dressed turkeys and a paper bundle ; his hat was far back 
on his head, and we both burst out into a hearty laugh ; but he 
said: "I have salted down two fat hogs and we have two bar- 
rels of good winter apples and a good supply of fuel, and we 
are getting pretty well fixed up for the winter." 

.\ SC.VREI) KEGIMEXT. 

On one occasion we were talking about the ditTerent kinds 
of snakes in this country. *'\\'ell," said the Colonel, "the fun- 
niest panic I ever experienced w^as in 1862, during the siege of 
Corinth. One evening my regiment was ordered to take an ad- 
vanced position after dark in the brush very near to the con- 
federate line, so as to attack at da}light the next morning. 
The men took jjosition. and were lying on their arms in line 
of battle. Soon after dark it began a slow rain, and after lying 
there very quietly for an hour or tw^o. one of my men said: "I 
smell a rattlesnake." and the rumor spread along the entire line, 
and despite the entreaties of all the officers, the regiment broke 
and fled. The soldiers said they would fight rebels anywhere, 
but thc\' would not stay among rattlesnakes in the dark." 

HIS IDE.\I..S. 

There is neither inspiration nor asi)iration in the life that 
is not moved by a great ideal. The greatest earthly ideal is 
that of true friendship in which confidence is never lost or de- 
based. 

Owing to this fact, the name of Colonel \''an Horn is 
deeply engraved on the hearts of thousands of men and women 
who knew him in the earl\' struggles, trials and triumiihs of 
Kansas Citv. l>y every one he was known and esteemed as an 
honest, sympathetic and public spirited citizen. liis evcry-day 
life so simple, unpretending and democratic, the great com- 
moner of Missouri, brought him into close touch with all 
classes. lie understood their thoughts, feelings and asi)irations 
far better Ih.-in the rmcs who stood aloof. A statesman, a 
philosopher, a scholar and a thinker, his mind inovrd in an ever 

22 



widening circle of knowledj^e. It was trained by a lon^ and 
powerful system of analysis, so that it workrd with the j)recis- 
ion of a splendid piece of machinery. 

Indissolubly connected with Kansas City, its rise, its 
progress, and its destiny, is the name of Colonel Robert Thomp- 
son \'an Horn, whose public service and private virtues belong 
to this nation as one of its great historic characters. 

At the conuclusion of the paper several citizens made short addresses. 
Judge H. C. McDougal said : 

Mr. President and Friends: 

I have long been proud of the Kansas City Spirit, which says and 
does things at the right time and in the right way. I am prouder of that 
spirit now than ever before, for it has here brought together so many 
representative men and women of this city to pay tribute to a venerable 
living friend whom we all respect, honor and love. But I am proudest 
of all tonight that I enjoy the personal friendship of our distinguished 
guest of honor, Colonel R. T. Van Horn. 

I have known him ever since I became a citizen of Missouri, nearly 
forty years ago. Our first bond of sympathy grew out of the fact that we 
had been soldiers of the Union in the Civil War and were members of 
the same political party. The passing years brought us closer together 
and each year has served to increase my admiration for the man — for his 
vast knowledge, profound wisdom, wonderful achievements, kindness of 
heart, simplicity of manner, his humanity — until tonight this big, brave, 
brainy, far-sighted, many-sided man appeals to me as a very giant in in- 
tellect and manly manhood. 

In the davs and years that arc gone, I have had many long heart to 
heart talks w'ith Col. Van Horn and at tire close of each have known 
that I not only knew more, but that I was a better man than when that talk 
commenced. And if I had that faith, hope and belief of immortality, so 
soothing to many of mv betters, one of the anticipated delights nf the 
mystic life beyond the River would be that I might there, as here, again 
meet, greet and commune with my friend, in and through all the days, 
weeks, months, years, centuries and cycles yet to be. 

I believe in, and have practiced, the sentiment expressed hv the poet 
in the lines : 

Oh, friends, I pray, tonight. 
Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow; 
The way is lonely; let me feel them now. 
** * * * * * * 

When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need 
The tenderness for which T long tonight. 

And when a friend has cither said or done a good thing, I have not 
waited to speak of it over his or her grave, but taken that friend 
by the hand and, face to face, expressed my grateful appreciation. Hence 
I am glad to be present tonight, to pay my tribute of personal respect to 
the journalist, soldier, statesman, sage, philosopher and friend, who for 
half a century has been the most useful citizen of Kansas City, as he 
today is easily our foremost citizen. And having him here at a dis- 
advantage, I repeat to his face what I have so often said behind his back : 

23 



That the time will come when the rising generation will say with pleasure 
and pride '"I knew Col. R. T. Van Horn personally." just as we of the 
passing generation proudly sav "I knew Abraham Lincoln." 

When the long, busj', useful and beautifully blameless life of our 
beloved friend shall have closed— which the gods grant may be many 
years hence— then it may well be said of him, a^ the gifted John Boyle 
O'Reilly said of his ideal man; 

And how did he live, that dead man there, 

In the country churchyard laid? 

O. he? He came for the sweet field air. 

He ruled no serfs and he knew no pride 

He was one with the workers side by side. 

For the youth he mourned with an endless pity 

Who were cast like snow on the streets of the city. 

He was weak, maybe ; but he lost no friend ; 

Who loved him once, loved on to the end. 

He mourned all selfish and shrewd endeavor : 

But he never injured a weak one — never. 

When censure was passed, he was kindly dumb; 

He was never so wise but a fault would come ; 

He was never so old that he failed to enjoy 

The games and the dreams he had loved when a boy. 

He erred, and was sorry ; but never drew 

A trusting heart from the pure and true. 

W'hen friends look back from the years to be, 

God grant they may say such things of me. 

Colonel R. H. Hunt said: 

The early history of our city is fraught with great importance to us. 
The swift changes o'f the last decade are rapidly passing into forgetful- 
ness. Therefore, I am glad that Dr. Greenwood and others are rescuing 
the records of a few of the important incidents that were the factors in 
our growth. And I have been familiar with the history of our city since 
1859. In fact, I have been a pupil of Van Horn's as I have been a con- 
stant reader of the Journal since 1864. Turning points in the growth of 
our city were: 1st, the securing of the Missouri Pacific; 2nd, of the 
Cameron Road, now the C. B. & Q. ; 3rd. of the North Missouri, now 
the Wabash, and the Fort Scott and Memphis, now the Frisco; 4th, 
of the Kansas Pacific, now the Union Pacific— I only mention these roads 
which Van Horn was largely instrumental in bringing into our city. Not- 
withstanding, we were naturally a railroad center, it was a constant 
struggle, as our rivals had control of legislation. We had to fight at 
every point. There were a few men. whose courage and nerve ought to 
win the admiration of our people, who knew the facts, but the one through 
whom thcv did the work,— their right-hand so to speak— was Van Horn, 
who enthused the people to vote aid. As the agent in conventions se- 
curing legislation, in Congress, everywhere, he was the agent. 1 o illus- 
trate it wa^ sought to run the Missouri Pacific from Warrcnsburg or 
Pleasant Hill due west to the State Line. The same thing was at- 
tempted by the North Missouri, now the Wabash; by way of Clay County 
Bluffs to Leavenworth, leaving our city out in the cold. These schemes 
were approved by lobby efforts only. Until 1862 Col. Van Horn was with 
his regiment in the field (where he was wounded). He was elected to 
the State Senate and McGerand and Payne to the lower house. On 

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taking his seat, the Colonel was placed in charge of the bill for the 
building of the Missouri Pacific, and with the aid of his asscjciates, Kan- 
sas City became the terminus. The North Missouri, to get what legis- 
lation it wanted, was too glad to build to this city. Before this the 
Cameron road had been started but abandoned, and here dates one of 
these important events in the destiny of our city. Tlie road to Cameron 
was now sought to be revived. The war had made Kansas City a mere 
military post and correspondingly helped Leavenworth, Atchison and St. 
Joseph. The proprietors of the Hannibal were the owners of the Cameron, 
which was merely a branch. It was known that Hayward the Superin- 
tendent of the Hannibal had transferred his affections from Kansas City 
to Leavenworth and was using all his power to divert the road to that 
city. The Cameron directory was organized, who went to Detroit to see 
Joy, the President of the C. B. & Q., where they met parties from Leaven- 
worth on a similar errand. The result was that the Boston people made 
this condition: that, before they would decide, the right to bridge the 
Missouri should be secured from Congress. Colonel Van Horn, being in 
Congress, was telegraphed to, asking him to secure legislation. Now 
commonly this is the work of a session of Congress, but with the energy, 
tact and zeal that has always characterized his action when our city was 
in the scale, he took advantage of an incident that fortunately just then 
occurred. A committee had reported a bill to bridge the Mississippi at 
Quincy, and the bill was the special order. The first thing Van Horn did 
-was to draw an amendment to the Quincy bill, authorizing a bridge at 
Kansas City and got the consent of the chairman of the committee to 
introduce it, and the bill was passed. And here I want to relate an m- 
cident, that shows how small a margin sometimes controls great events. 

Whilst the Colonel was on the floor offering his amendment, Sidney 
Clark, member from Kansas, came in and hearing it read, rushed to his 
desk to write an amendment for a bridge at Leavenworth, but, before he 
could propose it, the previous question was asked for and carried. Now 
I want to impress upon you that this bridge was the turning point. Yes, 
the chief factor in settling the status of Kansas City over her rivals— and 
we owe this consummation almost exclusively to our worthy and be- 
loved citizen. Colonel R. T. Van Horn. 

I am gratified in having this opportunity to present these pungent facts 
to you in the presence of the Colonel who has deserved his title in war as 
well as his rank as the first citizen of Kansas City for whom there ought to 
"be a monument erected and placed on one of the most conspicuous places 
in the city. 

The following distinguished citizens spoke briefly of Colonel Van 
Horn's character and work in Kansas City: General Milton Moore, Judge 
J. V. C. Karnes, Colonel J. S. Botsford, Colonel L. H. Waters, and Rev. 
Father William J. Dalton. 

Colonel Van Horn responded to the eulogies by thanking .Mr. Green- 
wood especially for the allusion to Mrs. Van Horn to which he replied: 

"One of the secrets in public life is the assurance that home needs 
no attention on your part." . 

Mrs. Van Horn was compelled to rise in response to applause, and 
the audience rose in compliment to her. ,,,-.. . r i. 

On motion of Prof. S. A. Underwood, the club decided to pubhsh 
in pamphlet form Prof. Greenwood's address and other facts concern- 
ing Colonel Van Horn, and distribute them in the public and parochial 
schools of Kansas City. 

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